Valley of Ghosts Rewrite
by weatherprooftradgedy
Summary: Rewrite of a story that was formerly on my old account Galacticwof: After learning that Morgana is still alive and searching for something called the Ring of Souls, Merlin, Arthur and the knights set out to get it before her, but in a land where the dead walk, can Merlin keep his secrets as old friends and foes return?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Some you might recognize this fic, it was originally posted on my old account _Galacticwolf, _but since I don't use that account anymore I decided to rewrite it and post it on this one. I don't have a ton of time to write currently since I'm busy with school, but for the chapters I'm rewriting I will probably update once a week and then once I start writing new chapters it may be only once a month.  
**Disclaimer: **I'm only going to say this once, so here we go: I don't own Merlin or any of its characters, they belong to the BBC, the only thing I own is the plot of this story.

Arthur sighed as he waited for the members of the round table to arrive, hardly a month had passed since they had retaken Camelot, and yet there was already a new threat from Morgana facing them, he couldn't help but wonder if they would ever get a break. Noticing that the last of the knights had arrived, Arthur stood up, causing the room to grow quiet,

"As I'm sure some of you have already heard," he began, "We recently received word that Morgana is in fact, still alive" As the knights shared looks of horror, Arthur continued, "We've also learned that she's searching for something known as the Ring of Souls." As he finished speaking, Arthur noticed from the corner of his eye that Gaius had a thoughtful look on his face, and it appeared he was the only one, as Leon spoke up.

"Have you ever heard of it before, Gaius?" he asked,

"I know I've seen it mentioned before," Gaius said, "But I'm not sure where." He thought for a moment, "Ah," he said," Now I remember, it was in the same book as the Cup of Life" He stood up, "Give me a moment to go get it."

Gaius returned a few minutes later, carrying a heavy tome which he set down on the table with a loud thud, "It should be in here somewhere." he said, as he flipped through the pages, "Ah, here it is, the Ring of Souls is a magical artifact that is said to reside in the Valley of Ysbrydion, it is rumored that it gives the wearer the power to summon and control the spirits of the dead." No one spoke as the realization of how much harm Morgana could cause with that power sunk in, it was Leon who finally broke the silence,

"If Morgana gets ahold of that ring she could some summon an army of ghosts to attack Camelot." he said, the fear obvious in his voice,  
"Not only that," Arthur said, turning pale, "With all the magic users my father killed she could easily summon an army of dead sorcerers." Merlin groaned and placed his head in his hands,

"Why does it always have to be a magical army?" He asked the room in general, "Why can't she just use normal humans that are easy to kill for once?" Gwaine laughed and place a comforting hand on Merlin's shoulder,

"Come on Merlin, that would be way too boring." It was then that Percival asked what they had all been wondering, but didn't want to ask.

"If Morgana does get the ring, what will we do, how can you kill a ghost?" Gaius glanced at Merlin out of the corner of his eye before answering,

"I don't know, though it's possible that magic might work." Arthur rolled his eyes, frustration plain on his face,

"Somehow I doubt we'll have any magic users volunteering to help us" he said, "Any other ideas?"

"What about Excalibur?" Elyan asked, "It's a magic sword."

"It might be able to do them harm" Gaius admitted, "But I highly doubt that Arthur could fight them all by himself." Arthur slammed his hand against the table,

"What are we suppose to do?" He demanded, for a moment, nobody spoke,

"What if" Gwaine said finally, "We go to the Valley ourselves and get the ring, if we have it, then Morgana can't get it." Everyone turned and stared at him,

"What?" he asked, confused. Arthur shook his head,

"I can't believe it," he said, "Gwaine actually had a good idea."

"Hey!" Gwaine protested, "I have good ideas all the time!" Merlin laughed,

"Like what?" Gwaine thought,

"Well...um...there was that one time.. ummm..." Leon sighed,

"It is a good idea" he said, "But there's one problem, we have no idea where the Valley of Ysbrydion is." Arthur turned to Gaius,

"Does it say anything the book?" he asked, Gaius shook his head,

"All it says is that it's past the Lake of Avalon." Arthur threw his hands in the air,

"Great! And where is that?"

"It's about half a days journey from here." Everyone turned to stare at Merlin.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **I'm not really happy with the flow of this chapter, but I don't know how to fix it so hopefully it will work out okay.

***EDIT* My formatting keeps getting messed up when I upload so sorry about that. I've gone through and manually fixed the spacing in Doc Manager so hopefully it's fixed now, but if it's not let me know. **

Everyone was staring at Merlin, and at first, he wasn't sure why, but then Arthur spoke,

"Uh, Merlin? How do you know that?"

'Crap' Merlin thought, he'd completely forgotten that mortals weren't suppose to be able to find the Lake of Avalon on their own, if he hadn't been following Sophia and her father he would have never found it. Except...well, ever since he had survived the Dorcha's touch, he couldn't help but wonder if he really was mortal, not that he could tell Arthur that. Everyone was still looking at him, waiting for him to explain so he knew he'd have to say something,

"Um...I followed someone there." he finally answered, hoping that they wouldn't ask him who, maybe something had shown in his expression because nobody asked him more about it, though Arthur did give him a look which seemed to say 'We'll talk later'.

"Well then," Arthur said, "You can lead us there, and we'll figure out what to do once we get there."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Asked Merlin, his face the picture of innocence, "It might involve thinking, and we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." As the knights laughed, Arthur glared at Merlin, who just smiled.

"So, what exactly is the Valley of Ysbrydion?" Asked Elyan, once the laughter had died down, "I'm sure I've heard the name before." Looking up from the book, Gaius raised an eyebrow,

"I wouldn't be surprised if you had" he said, "There are plenty of stories about it, though there's probably very little truth left in them." Arthur looked at him in surprised,

"Wait, you've heard of it before?" Gaius nodded,

"Indeed I have," he said, "Though it's been many years, the Valley of Ysbrydion was a place of the old religion, though even before the Purge it hadn't been used for centuries. Roughly translated, its name means Valley of the Ghosts." Gwaine laughed, taking a drink from a flagon of mead he had gotten somewhere,

"Sounds like a lovely place" he said, "I bet people loved to vacation there."

"Actually" Gaius told him, "It was quite a popular place to go"

"Seriously?" asked Arthur, "Why would people want to go there?"

"Because," Gaius explained, "You could visit with the dead." Everyone stared at him,

"Wait" Arthur said, blinking "What?" Gaius sighed, as he settled into scholar mode,

"The Valley o f Ysbrydion," he explained, "Is one of the few places where the spirit world intersects with the mortal world, this meant that the dead where able to interact with the living in such places, people would flock there to visit their deceased loved ones." He paused to allow what he was saying to sink in, "The only problem" he continued, "Was that not all the ghosts were benevolent, some of them would try to harm the visitors" Arthur frowned,

"If it wasn't safe there, then why were people allowed to go?" he asked, Gaius glared at him,

"I was just getting there, be patient." He said, looking back down at the book, "Now, according to this book, although the Valley's guardians had the ability to control the spirits somewhat, they couldn't control many of them at once, so they created the Ring of Souls, which allowed the wearer to control millions of ghosts at once."

"If they could control the ghosts," Gwaine asked, "Then why did people quit going?" Gaius voice grew sad,

"There was a great plague one year," he said, "Many people in the land were killed, including many of the guardians, in the end, there weren't enough left to guard the valley, so they sealed it off." Silence filled the room for the moment before it was broken by Arthur,

"So just who were the guardians?" Gaius avoided looking at Merlin as he answered,

"The Dragonlords."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **A lot of people have commented on the formatting and I'm sorry about that, it keeps getting messed up when I upload it. For now I'm just manually fixing it in Doc Manager but I will hopefully have it fixed soon. Also, there will be a poll up on my account for who you want to see come back as a ghost, Freya, Lancelot and Balinor are already planned. Oh and anyone who can guess where I got the name Kurthnaga gets a virtual cookie.

Merlin stared at Gaius in shock, as did everyone else in the room,

"The Dragonlords?" Arthur repeated, his voice disbelieving, "Why were the Dragonlords the guardians?" Gaius shrugged,

"No one really knows any details, though as I said before, they did have some control over the dead." Merlin continued to stare at Gaius, his head reeling, all of this was new to him. It seemed he needed to have a chat with a certain dragon.

"It's a pity there aren't any Dragonlords left." Gwaine said, shaking Merlin from his thoughts and causing him to shift guiltily in his seat, "It would have been useful to have one along." Arthur sighed

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious Gwaine." Gwaine simply grinned,

"You're welcome Princess," he said, "Or would that be Queen now?" Arthur just rolled his eyes and turned to address the knights,

"Now" he said, "We can't afford to waste anytime, so I want you all to be ready to leave for the Lake of Avalon at first light tomorrow." He looked at his manservant, "That includes you Merlin." Glancing around one last time to make sure everyone understood, he nodded. "Alright then, we done." As he left the council chambers Merlin sighed, somehow he doubted he'd get any sleep that night.

* * *

By the time Merlin had finished packing both his and Arthur's bags night had already fallen and all he wanted was to fall into bed, however before he could do that he needed to talk to Kilgharrah. It was laughably easy to sneak past the guards at the front gate, since they all left to investigate a noise that had conveniently come from a nearby alley. Arthur really needed to get better security. Walking a short distance into the woods, Merlin stopped at a large clearing where he quickly reached out with his magic, making sure there wasn't anyone else around. Feeling reassured that there was no one else around, Merlin looked up at the sky ,

"_O draken, e mala soi ftengometh tsed'hup anankes! Erkheo" _he roared, for a few minutes silence filled the clearing, but then the flapping of wings filled the air as Kilgaharrah arrived. Landing gracefully despite his large size, he turned his golden gaze on Merlin,

"Ah young warlock, for what reason have you called me here?" he asked, Merlin smiled,

"Greetings old friend, I need some information, have you ever heard of the Ring of Souls?" The dragon stared at him, and Merlin could've sworn he looked shocked.

"The Ring of Souls? Now where did you ever hear of that, that thing is older than even me."

"Morgana is after it," Merlin explained, "Arthur has decided that we must get it before her." Kilgaharrah's eyes narrowed,

"You must hurry," he warned, "If that witch gets ahold of the ring she'll cause more destruction than you could imagine possible."

"Don't worry" Merlin assured him, "I have no intention of letting her get it. But what can you tell me about the ring, all we know is that it gives the wearer the power to summon and control ghosts." Kilgaharrah sighed,

"Well, the Ring of Souls was originally created thousands of years ago by the Dragonlord Kurthnaga, you see, although Dragonlords could communicate and control spirits, the amount of control they had over them completely depended on how powerful the individual Dragonlord was. However, it wasn't often that Dragonlords strong enough to control the more powerful spirits were born, because of this, Kurthnaga, who was one of the most powerful Dragonlords created the ring and imbued it with his power. This made it so that anyone could control the ghosts, however, it also cost Kurthnaga his life."  
"Wait," Merlin interrupted, "What do you mean it cost him his life?" Kilgaharrah glared at him for interrupting,

"Because, in order to imbue the ring with his powers Kurthnaga basically had to attach his soul to it, without his soul he died." Merlin frowned,

"Wait a minute, if he attached his powers to the ring, does that mean that whoever wears it has access to all the powers of a Dragonlord?" Kilgaharrah shook his head,

"Thankfully no, Kurthnaga knew that the ring would be dangerous enough with the power to control ghosts, so he made sure that no other powers went into it. Now," he said, standing up, "If that is all I must go, I wish you luck on your quest" With a nod to the warlock the dragon took off into the air, watching him fly off Merlin noticed that the sun was rising, so much for sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: ** I just want to remind everyone to go vote in the poll on my profile page, I'll be leaving it up until I finish rewriting chapters and start writing new ones, so it should be about a week.

As it turned out Merlin was right, he didn't manage to get any sleep, by the time he had snuck back through the gates and up to his room it was already morning, he had barely had time to eat before he had to leave to meet Arthur and the Knights. As he watched Arthur saying goodbye to Gwen, he found himself hoping that he would fall asleep while they were riding, knowing his luck he would end up falling off his horse. After what seemed like forever Arthur finished his goodbyes and mounted his horse,

"Alright men, let's go" he said, "You're leading Merlin" Merlin sighed, he had forgotten that he was the only one who knew the way, he would just have to make sure he didn't fall asleep. As they rode Merlin thought about what Gaius had said, that in the Valley you could communicate with the dead, there were so many people he would love to see again and yet, at the same time, he was afraid as there were also enemies, people he had killed who could reveal his secret. It was while he was thinking that he felt something hit the back of his head, turning around to see Gwaine preparing to throw another acorn, he glared at him,

"What was that for?" he demanded, Gwaine gave him a look of pure innocence,

"What? I didn't do anything, it was Percival." he said, pointing at the other knight, Merlin just gave him an eyebrow raise that would have made Gaius proud,

"Oh really" Merlin asked, Gwaine nodded vigorously,

"Yes, really." Behind Gwaine, Merlin saw Arthur roll his eyes,

"Really Gwaine, you're so childish sometimes." Gwaine just shrugged his shoulders,

"What can I say, I'm bored, and Merlin was being so quiet that I thought he'd fallen asleep." Merlin glared at him again,  
"I was thinking, you might try it sometime." The other knights laughed at the wounded expression on Gwaine's face.

"What were you thinking about Merlin?" Arthur asked,

"Well, Gaius said that people went to the Valley of Ysbrydion to talk to spirits of the dead, I was wondering if we might see Lancelot." Arthur looked at him in surprise,

"You're right, I hadn't even thought of that, maybe we will." The knights grew silent as they thought of people they might get to see again, though it was soon broken as Gwaine began to sing a song he had obviously learned in a tavern.

* * *

Merlin was relieved when they finally reached the lake, he didn't think he could take anymore of Gwaine's singing,

"We're not going to sit in silence, we're not going to live in..." Gwaine trailed off as they reached the lakeside clearing and gazed around in wonder, Merlin couldn't blame him, it really was a beautiful place. Looking at the other knights, Merlin grinned, the were in the same position as Gwaine, staring around with their mouths wide open. Shaking his head, Merlin moved to sit on a fallen log while he waited for them to finish gawking. After a few minutes then finished and moved to join him, as he sat down beside him Arthur glanced up at the sky,

"It took longer than we thought to get here, we'll camp for the night and figure out what to do in the morning." As the knights moved to set up camp Arthur turned to Merlin,

"Any idea what we should do next?" he asked, Merlin shook his head,

"No I don't," he admitted, "But I have a feeling it will all work out." Arthur looked at him strangely,

"Just what does that mean?" he asked, however, before Merlin could answer a voice interrupted them,  
"You're late, what did you do, stop to sightsee?" Arthur jumped up, drawing his sword, as did the knights, Merlin however just smiled,

"Hello Freya."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: ** This chapter is really short, and I'm sorry about that, but I could figure out any way to make it longer besides combining it with the next chapter, and that wouldn't have worked right. Also, my sister told me she doesn't think I'm being descriptive enough, what do you guys think?

Arthur whirled around to face his manservant, had he really just heard him greet this girl, who had suddenly appeared, by name? Judging by the goofy smile that Merlin was wearing, he had,

"You know her?" he asked, "Who is she, what's she doing here?"

"This is Freya," Merlin said, "She's uh...well...um...she's..." Freya sighed,

"To put it simply, I'm his girlfriend." Arthur and the knights all stared at her, then at Merlin,

"She is way out of your league." Someone, most likely Gwaine whispered, while Arthur just continued to stare,

"His girlfriend," he repeated, "Merlin has a girlfriend?" He shook his head in amazement, "I don't believe it."

"Hey!" cried Merlin, "What's so surprising about it?"

"Well," Gwaine said, looking at Merlin, "We were beginning to think you were gay, I mean, you never look at girls. Although..." he looked back at Freya,and grinned "With a girlfriend like that, I can't blame you." Merlin glared at him,

"Don't you even think of flirting with her." he warned. Gwaine was about to reply when Arthur interrupted,

"Okay, so Merlin has a girlfriend, that still doesn't explain what she's doing here." he said, looking at her suspiciously, "She might be working with Morgana."

"She would never do that!" Merlin protested, staring angrily at Arthur, "She..."

"It's fine Merlin," Freya interrupted, "He has every right to be suspicious." she turned to Arthur, "I was going to help you get to the Valley, but if you'd rather stay here and debate whether or not I can be trusted, then be my guest." Arthur narrowed his eyes,

"And just how would you know the way there?" Freya's expression grew sad,

"Because," she said, "I"m dead."


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Since the last chapter was so short I went ahead and rewrote this one. It has my attempt at writing romance between Merlin and Freya in it, which is pretty terrible, so be warned.

Silence greeted Freya words, no one really knew what to say, it wasn't often people informed you they were dead. Finally, Merlin broke the silence,

"Uh, Freya?" he said, "Couldn't you have been a little bit less blunt?" Freya gave him a scathing look,

"Have you ever tried telling people that you're dead?" she asked, "It's not exactly an easy thing to do." Merlin rubbed his head sheepishly,

"I guess you're right." he admitted, Freya grinned at him,

"Of course I am, I'm always right."

"Hey" Arthur called, "Do you think you guys could save the flirting for later and come do some explaining?" Merlin and Freya looked at each other and sighed,

"What is it you want to know?" Freya asked,

"Well," Arthur said, " To start with, if you're dead, how come we can see you?" Freya frowned,

"It's kind of hard to explain, but basically, I'm bound to the Lake of Avalon and it's magic allows me to interact with you. Next question?" To everyone's amusement Percival raised his hand,

"Have you actually been in the Valley?" he asked "Is there anything about it we need to be aware of?" Freya nodded,

"I've been into the Valley plenty of times, it's where I spend most of my time." she smiled slightly, "If anyone ever tells you that being dead is fun, they're lying, it's downright boring." She thought for a moment, "The only thing I can really tell you is that while you're in the Valley, you need to be extremely careful, the spirits there can cause you just as much harm as they could when they were alive, and they don't need to worry about dying."

"Wait," said Leon, "If they can't be killed, what are we suppose to do if they attack us?"

"They can't be killed, but they can still be harmed" Freya clarified, "If they take enough damage they'll have to retreat, though they'll heal faster than a mortal would. But that's only as long as they remain in the Valley, if they leave it they can be destroyed, though only by powerful magic." She looked up at the sky, which was growing dark, "Now,if that's all the questions you have I suggest you get some rest, it will be a long day tomorrow." She grabbed Merlin's hand, "You and I have some catching up to do."

* * *

While the others prepared for sleep, Merlin and Freya moved a short distance away so they could talk.

"_Áhýdan sé mótung dierne" _ Merlin whispered, after making sure no one was watching, he nodded at Freya, "Alright, no one will be able to overhear us now."

"Be careful tomorrow," Freya warned, "You have plenty of enemies among the dead that know about your magic."

"I know" Merlin said, sighing, "I'll try, I don't know that Arthur is ready to learn I have magic yet, or that I'm the last Dragonlord. Though if things get bad I may have no choice."

"Don't worry Merlin" Freya said, leaning against him, "He might be mad at first, but I'm sure he'll forgive you, you're his best friend." Merlin smiled,

"Yeah, you're probably right, but then again, you usually are."

* * *

Merlin and Freya were the first of the group to wake, with Gwaine waking shortly thereafter. Once Gwaine had gotten up, the rest of the camp didn't get much more sleep as they were quickly woken when Gwaine started singing,

"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna...OW!" he was soon silenced as one of Elyan's boots hit his head, he then proceeded to run around the camp with Elyan chasing him in an attempt to get his boot back. Once Elyan had gotten his boot back and the camp had been cleared up, Freya stood.

"Is everyone ready?" she asked, Arthur looked at his knights, who nodded,

"We're ready." he told her,

"Good" said Freya, walking to the edge of the lake, she raised her hand over the water,

"_Bát onýwan æt oferferian ús oferfæreld" _she chanted, causing a boat to slowly rise out of the water. Turning around she saw Arthur and the knights staring at her,

"You used magic!" Arthur accused, Freya rolled her eyes,

"Really, I hadn't noticed." Arthur glared at her,

"Magic is evil!" Freya sighed,

"Is a sword evil?" she asked, Arthur stared at her in confusion,

"A sword? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question," Freya snapped, "Is a sword evil?" Arthur shook his head,

"Of course not, it's just a tool."

"But people sometimes use it to do evil things," Freya pointed out, "Doesn't that make it evil?"

"No," Arthur said, looking at her like she was crazy, "It's the person who uses it that's evil, swords can be used for good as well." Freya smiled,

"Exactly, now how is magic any different?"

"What?"

"Just like a sword," Freya explained, "magic is neither good nor evil, it all depends on the user, some people use magic to do evil things, while others use it to do good. Saying that magic is evil is as ridiculous as saying swords are evil." Arthur was silent, having never thought of it that way, was it possible that magic wasn't evil?

"Now" Freya said, walking towards the boat, " As much as I'd like to stay and chat, we need to leave."


	7. Chapter 7

Gwaine stared nervously at the boat, it looked rather small,

"Are you sure that will hold us all?" he asked, not for the first time. Freya glared at him,

"Yes, I'm sure!" she snapped, "Now get in there, or we'll leave you behind." Gwaine thought for a moment,

"Fine," he said, "But if we drown I am never speaking to you again." Freya ignored him, and climbed into the boat, checking that everyone was seated she raised her hand over the water,

"_Gerecan" _she whispered, and the boat slowly drifted forward,

"How long will it take to get there?" Leon asked, as Freya sat down next to Merlin, Freya shrugged,

"Probably a couple of hours." Arthur stared at her in surprise,

"That long? Can't you do anything to speed it up?" Freya glared at him,

"You rush a miracle worker, you get lousy miracles."

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Gwaine asked, for what seemed like the thousandth time, Merlin sighed,

"No Gwaine, we're not there yet." he said, Gwaine frowned,

"Oh...how about now?" Arthur let out a groan,

"Gwaine, just shut up!" Gwaine opened his mouth to protest, but Arthur cut him off, "If you say one more word," he warned "I'll make sure the tavern bans you forever." Gwaine quickly shut his mouth.

"Thank goodness," Merlin said, sighing in relief, "I was ready to kill him." Arthur laughed,

"I doubt you could kill anyone Merlin." he said. It must have been a trick of the light, but he could have sworn he saw Merlin flinch when he said that. He shook his head, no, that was ridiculous, he must have imagined it. Looking around, he noticed that the trees on the shore seemed to be thinning out and the air was filling with grey mist, as the boat moved further into the mist he felt a chill crawl up his spine, there was something about this place that frightened him. It seemed he wasn't the only one affected by it, as his companions glanced around nervously, in fact, it seemed that Freya was the only one it didn't bother, though whether that was due to the fact that she was a ghost or some other reason he didn't know.

"We're almost there," Freya said, and sure enough the boat soon bumped up against the shore, carefully, as the mist made it nearly impossible to see where they were stepping, the group got out of the boat which then disappeared back into the lake.

"Any idea what we should do next Sire?" Leon asked, Arthur looked around, squinting in an attempt to see through the mist, however, before he could answer they heard a familiar voice,

"Well I'll be, I guess they let just about anyone in these days" Turning around they saw Lancelot walk out of the mist.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the wait on this chapter, I had an essay I needed to finish for school, as well as a lot of other homework I still need to do, so this chapter will be short and the next one probably won't be up till next week. Also, I couldn't remember if Arthur had been told that Lancelot had been a shade, so I'm just going to assume for the sake of this story that Gaius told him later.

"Lancelot!" Merlin cried, his face lighting up at the sight of his friend, "Is it really you?" Lancelot smiled,

"It's really me," he said, then his smile turned into a frown, "But what are you guys doing here, you're not dead, are you?" Merlin shook his head,

"No, we're not dead, at least," he looked at Freya sadly, "most of us aren't." Lancelot looked confused,

"Oh, well I'm happy you're not dead, but what are you doing here if you're alive?"

"Well," Merlin began, "We're looking for the Ring of Souls." Arthur slapped his manservant across the back of his head,

"Merlin!" he hissed, "Don't tell him that!" Merlin rubbed his head and glared at Arthur,

"Ow! Why shouldn't I tell him?" Arthur sighed,

"Because," he explained, "We don't know for he really is Lancelot, he could be another shade sent by Morgana." Merlin bit back a groan, it hadn't even crossed his mind that Arthur might be suspicious that it wasn't the real Lancelot, since somehow, possibly because he was a Dragonlord, Merlin could sense that it really was Lancelot, but it wasn't like he could tell Arthur that.

"Well," he said, after a moments thought, "It will be easy enough to find out, if he's a shade the only things he'll know are what Morgana could tell him, so we just ask him something Morgana wouldn't know."

"That would work," Arthur admitted, "What should we ask him?" The knights thought for a moment, finally Percival spoke up,

"Lancelot," he said, "When we first met what was I doing?" Lancelot's face grew sad,

"You were burying your family." he said, Percival nodded, his face growing sad at the memory,

"It's him" he said, "No one else would know that."

"Satisfied?" Merlin asked Arthur, Arthur nodded,

"Sorry about that," he told Lancelot, "I had to be sure." Lancelot waved off his apology,

"It's fine," he assured him, "I don't blame you. Now, what's this Ring of Souls."


End file.
